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For people working on the ground, it must start with the country’s “forgotten” resources: land and human.

"This is an ASEAN age, and the Philippines is the next miracle in Asia. If you want inclusive growth, it must start with agriculture,” said Cherrie Atilano, co-founder and president of Agricool, on Tuesday, August 12, during the ASEAN Youth Dialogues. (READ: PH agriculture: Why is it important?)

She said today’s challenges in Philippine agriculture include land, climate, and support system for food production. But these problems can only be solved by focusing on farmers, who are “endangered species.”

The Philippines has a total agricultural land area of 9.671 million hectares. Agriculture accounts for 10% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 31% of total employment.

Despite these numbers, Atilano said farmers are the poorest and hungriest in the Philippines. This is why young Filipinos refuse to go into farming.

Keep people in the countryside

"But farmers are really awesome! They’re brilliant!” said Atilano, who is a farmer herself.

Atilano said farmers now need support for business development more than support in training. Only when they can be wealth-creators and not wealth-seekers can the country keep them from leaving the countryside. (READ: Basic sectors need help in ASEAN integration - exec)

Citing numbers from the Department of Tourism, Atilano said 1,400 people leave for mega cities like Metro Manila every day.

"People say Metro Manila is heaven, but it’s not. We need to bring people back to the countryside…to develop our economy,” she added.

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Welcome to Rappler, a social news network where stories inspire community engagement and digitally fuelled actions for social change. Rappler comes from the root words "rap" (to discuss) + "ripple" (to make waves).